20 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Solar Spots and Spectrum.— As I have not the 

 necessary instruments, I shall be very much obliged 

 if any one who has will observe whether the pro- 

 I'ortiou of chemical to other rays in the solar 

 spectrum differs during the absence and presence 

 of the solar spots. — E. P. F. 



Initial Letters. — Are your readers aware, Mr. 

 Editor, that letters addressed to any initials or 

 jiditlous names at any Post-office will not Ije deli- 

 vered to the parties intended, but opened and 

 returned to the writers? It would be well if this 

 regulation were known to those who offer exchanges ; 

 and would you request " D. D., Post-office, Bit- 

 terne, Southampton," in Science-Gossip of Septem- 

 ber last, to give some other address ? — B. IF. 



The Pox-moth. — !Mr. Garfit's description, in the 

 December number of Sciknce-Gossip, of his finding 

 the larvse of the Pox-moth [Bombyx riibi) in such 

 luuubers on the east coast of Lincolnshire, reminds 

 me that when staying down in Galway, near 

 Al henry, some four or live years ago, I witnessed 

 a somewhat similar sceue. The ground iu that 

 neighbourhood is very stony, and covered with 

 heather and stunted furze -bushes. Upon these 

 latter 1 saw a multitude of caterpillars, of what 

 kind I knew not at the time. However, 1 have 

 iiuw no doubt, from Mr. Gascoyne's description, 

 ii:at they were those of the Pox-moth. — J. iS. W. 

 iJarhain, 



Atropos. — Some time ago I had the good for- 

 tune to take nine larvai of this fine moth during a 

 week's visit in the country. I took as much care 

 of them as possible, in hope of rearing at least one 

 or two of them, but they all died in about three or 

 four mouths after turning to pupa;. Can any of 

 the readers of Science-Gossip inform me how to 

 keep them iu a healthy condition during the puja 

 state ?— ^. L. 



Showers of Progs. — *' M. A. B." will be ex- 

 tremely obliged to any one who will freely and fully 

 explain how showers of frogs and fish are produced. 

 It they are not absorbed or drawn up into the clouds 

 by the intense heat of the suu's rays, before de- 

 scending to the earth in showers ? An answer iu 

 1 he next number of Science-Gossip will be eagerly 

 looked forward to. 



PoLK-LORE: Mad Stones.— An extract from a 

 New York paper (on page 213 of September num- 

 ber), relating a reputed iinnmnity from the bite of 

 a mad dog, iu Pulaski, Tennessee, by the use of 

 what is termed a mud stone, is followed by an 

 expressed desire to know if there really exists iu 

 America a popular belief that certain stones possess 

 the power of averting hydrophobia from persons 

 bitten by rabid dogs. In reply, 1 would say that 

 there is such a belief among the credulous, and it 

 is quite wide-spread, it mostly prevails among 

 the unlearned and superstitious, but is not confined 

 to such. A very respectable lady in Kichmoud, 

 Va., has oue of these so-called mad stones, iu which 

 she has implicit faith ; and I have known a reput- 

 able physician in Illinois who fully believed in their 

 elficacy. There are no spcci;d localities where these 

 SI ones are found, nor is there anything very pecu- 

 li;ir in their appearance, nor have I ever heard of 

 an authentic fact on which to start or substantiate 

 i-ueh an apparently absurd belief. — Josiuh Curtis, 

 M.I)., Kno.vcil.le, Tennessee. 



Geophilus electricus. — On September Slh, 

 whilst sugaring for noctua in a wood, I found a 

 curious centipede crawling on the damp ground ; it 

 was about lA inch long, pinkish, and had lots of 

 legs ; but the feature which attracted my attention 

 was a peculiar phosphorescent light, resembling 

 that of a glowworm {LahipTjris nociiluca), given out 

 from the whole of its body ; it also left a luminous 

 track behind it for several inches. When the bulls- 

 eye was turned on it, the creature " vamoosed," as 

 a Yankee would say ; and having a strange apathy 

 to this family of insects, it was allowed to escape. 

 1 find, in " Kirby and Spence," page 509, that it is 

 Geophilns electricus, but little is said beyond the 

 fact of its habitat usually being under clods of earth, 

 &c. Jf any subscriber can give me more informa- 

 tion concerning this remarkaiile insect, which is new 

 to myself and friends, I shall be much obliged. — 

 John Henderson, Reading. 



White Varieties (p. 201, vol. 7, and elsewhere). 

 — It is not uncommon that white varieties occur 

 among flowers and also fruits in the United States. 

 These sometimes become hereditary, so to speak, 

 especially among some of the smaller fruits. During^ 

 the past summer 1 have met with white varieties of 

 the blackberry {RiiLus villosus) iu Tennessee, North 

 Carolina, and Georgia; and I have been credibly 

 informed that the same occurs aii.ong low black- 

 berries or dewberries {R. canadensis). The bushes 

 and vines bearing these white berries quite uni- 

 formly, year after year, present every feature and 

 characteristic of the ordinary normal blackberry, 

 and seem identical in all respects, except iu pro- 

 ducing fruit which ripens without colour. It n;ay 

 be novel to some of jour readers, also, that a second 

 flowering not uidVequeutly occurs upon pear-trees, 

 apple-trees, cherry-trees, &c., in this country. This 

 takes place mostly iu the autumn, but this last year 

 I saw an apple-tree with fresh blossoms on it, on 

 the Nautahalah, in w^estern North Carolina, as early 

 as August 21. 1 have seen apple and pear-trees 

 in fresh bloom, in New England, iu October and 

 November ; and even now (October 25, 1871) Judge 

 Andrews, of this city (Knoxville, Tennessee), ha-s a 

 common pear-tree in recent bloom. Sometimes, 

 but rarely, we have a fair growth of fruit from 

 second blooming, especially in some of the smaller 

 fruits, i have known strawberries ripen iu Sep- 

 tember and October iu the Eastern States; and 

 here wc had two very respectable crops of straw- 

 berries the past summer,— one at the usual time, 

 early in May, and the second, from the same vines, 

 ripened during the latter days of July and the early 

 part of August. They were daily on sale in our 

 market, as they had been nearly three months pre- 

 viously. — Dr.Josiah (!urtis,Kno.Toille, Tennessee, U.H, 



Sponge Spicules. — Yourcorrcspondent "C." calls 

 attention, iu the December number, to the spicules 

 oi Sponffilla Jl/fciat/l/s, and gives drawings of them. 

 He seems, however, to have made an erior, to which 

 I would call attention. The smaller, or birotulate, 

 form of spicule is that of the ovary of Sjwngilla 

 jlumutilis ; but the other form, "pointed at each 

 end, and rough on the surface," never occurs in this 

 sponge. It docs, however, in Spongilla luc/rstris, 

 being abundant in the dermal and insterstitiul mem- 

 branes ; but it would be impossible to obtain both 

 these forms from the same sponge. Each of these 

 species of sponge has a muie abundant form of 

 spicule — the skeleton spicule— which in each species 

 is very similar. It is pointed at each end, but per- 

 fectly smooth, instcfid of being rough or spincd on 

 the siirfacc. — //. R. 



